


New city, new people, new love?

by choctopus



Series: You'll meet some of the best friends of your life at Uni. [3]
Category: The Musketeers (2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-19
Updated: 2014-03-19
Packaged: 2018-01-16 07:20:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1336867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choctopus/pseuds/choctopus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which d'Artagnan starts university and immediately falls head over heels in love with his halls warden.</p>
            </blockquote>





	New city, new people, new love?

**Author's Note:**

> Modern AU where our companions the musketeers are instead a group of rowdy students at a British university (because that's the environment your author has knowledge of)  
> d'Art's a fresher, Porthos and Aramis are third years and Athos is doing a masters in how long one can spend in the student union bar without being kicked off your course.  
> Later instalments planned.

D'Artagnan was very excited to start his degree. A whole new start in a whole new place with whole new people, and the first big step to a dream career. On move-in day they'd been told to meet in the communal kitchen in the evening. The ten boys in the flat were assembled when a young woman walked in in a t-shirt covered in university branding, with 'BONACIEUX' printed on the back.  
She was exactly that sort of girl-next-door pretty that a young man like d'Artagnan was apt to fall madly in love with, and he was immediately enchanted.

"My name is Constance and I'll be your warden this year. Shorten my name to 'Connie' and I probably won't answer. I'm living downstairs in room 36, and there's a note on your noticeboards with my contact details, please don't abuse them." D'Artagnan listened with rapt attention as she explained about the cleaning arrangements, limits on visitors and noise, what to do in emergencies, and all the other things the new residents needed to know. There was a party at the student union that night, where d'Artagnan felt like he was starting to make friends with his flatmates, though he’d admit to being somewhat distracted by Constance who looked - he thought - utterly radiant under the nightclub lights.

There was a meeting with his class and their tutors. Waiting outside before the meeting, d'Artagnan saw two guys having a very odd argument but no sooner had he registered them than his class were ushered inside by Professor Treville.  
And then at the activities fair in fresher's week it'd seemed like a good idea to join the men's hockey team and before he knew it he'd fallen in with Athos, Aramis and Porthos. At tryouts, Porthos recognised him as 'that kid who was looking at us funny outside Treville's classroom' and Aramis apparently decided they were going to adopt him.

"So where are you living d'Art?" Aramis asked.  
"Charles I."  
"So you're one of Connie's kids, huh. She said she had a difficult bunch." Porthos joked.  
Immediately d'Artagnan replied "You know her pretty well then? I mean. Hockey and stuff... Wait, has she said anything about me specifically?"  
Aramis sniggered.  
"Are you sure you'd want to know if she had?"  
"Has she said something... not exactly complimentary?"  
Porthos laughed loud enough for people the other end of the astropitches to turn and look at them.  
"Come on d'Art, you can be honest with us. Do you have a little bit of a massive crush on Constance?"  
"nooo, no no no... I mean. I like her a lot. As a person you know, and she's beautiful but I wouldn't presume to... I..."  
"Get a grip d'Artagnan." Aramis placed a hand on his shoulder. "You like her. And that's okay. She's a wonderful young woman! Just remember that she's got a boyfriend so you can't do anything about it!" Aramis smiled brightly. "I can see the appeal though. She's a demon on the hockey pitch. Did you know, she's knocked out three teeth since she started playing here."  
D’Artagnan felt the boyfriend was the primary obstacle. He’d been to visit Charles I hall a couple of times and while he was certainly always polite to d’Artagnan - or to his face at least… he’d gloated about how well his job paid ‘despite not going to uni’, and had a tendency to talk to Constance as though she were twelve rather than twenty one. 

Athos had called his friends together for lunch at the union. Aramis and Porthos were engaged in some snippy back-and-forth between themselves about ‘who was it broke two hockey sticks in a month’, while Athos was, as usual, just quietly sinking drink after drink, but d’Artagnan was determined to move the conversation on to the problem of The Boyfriend.   
“She’s just so, so wonderful; and he’s such a dickhead! I mean, she deserves so much better and that might not be me, but I feel duty bound, or something, to like, free her from him. You know what I mean?”  
“Thing is d’Art” Aramis said, “This isn’t an eighties teen romance movie.”  
“You can’t punch him out and expect her to immediately go ‘oh my god, you’re right, he’s a tool and you are my saviour, kiss me!’ it just doesn’t work like that.” Porthos added. 

And then The Boyfriend walked in, Constance in tow. They sat in the booth directly beside d’Artagnan and his friends without apparently clocking them. Athos signalled hush - The Boyfriend was in full flow;  
“I mean, that kid we bumped into on the stairs ‘darren’ or whatever you called him, greasy hair, trackie bottoms, I bet he drops out by the end of the year, he’s got the look about him.”  
“Of course he was wearing trackies, he’d just finished hockey practice.”  
“Yes well, you know what I think about the people who play that game… excepting you of course my darling. He’s still a dropout waiting to happen. And you’re just lucky your duties don’t include keeping them at their studies - the likes of him would make you look bad no matter how hard you tried.”  
“What do you want to eat then, I sort of fancy pasta”  
“Yeah, whatever. The way he looked at you though, I wouldn’t be comfortable with that if I were you, in fact, I’d probably report him directly to whoever’s supposed to be responsible for him and see if they couldn’t get him moved somewhere else.”  
Behind the partition, d’Artagnan was seething.   
“Darren?!” he hissed “I hardly fucking care what he thinks of me but at least get my damn name right!”  
“And when he waved at you from his car the other week. I nearly died laughing! Who on earth chooses to drive a yellow Ford Ka?”  
There was a sudden rush of movement from d’Artagnan’s booth. Constance leaned around the partition to find Athos, Aramis and Porthos physically restraining their friend. All four of them looked at her wide-eyed, then d’Art was released, smoothed his shirt down and settled back into his seat with a sheepish glance at the love of his life.  
“Hello Connie!” Aramis chirped.   
“Hello Aramis.” Constance responded. “Hello d’Artagnan!” she added, pronouncing his name with emphatic precision, entirely for her partner’s benefit. “Having a nice lunch, boys?”  
“Yes thank you, very nice.” Aramis answered her.   
“That’s nice. Well, I’ll see you all at the hockey social later.” She smiled, and turned back to her menu and her boyfriend.  
“She’s certainly something.” Porthos said, after a protracted silence.   
“Can’t believe he insulted my car.” d’Artagnan muttered. Aramis patted him on the shoulder.  
“If it makes you feel any better, I think Constance will help us break him, if that’s what you want.”


End file.
